Many years ago one specific prank gift was given at Christmas, it was fake poop. It has been showing up here and there ever since. For a while it was lost in the bottom of a junk drawer, but it was discovered once again and has been making the rounds at my parent’s house. The kids think it’s the greatest thing ever, especially our youngest niece Katie who happens to be four.
She is happy as a clam when she gets pranked so she can prank someone else. When we were back at Thanksgiving we put it in a can of Pringles for her to find when she reached for a snack. She laughed and laughed and immediately ran upstairs to put it on uncle Brian’s pillow. Before we left the prank poop was left on the bathroom counter with all four of their toothbrushes resting on it. My mom said Katie found it and thought it was great!
This isn’t the only prank gift that’s been in the family, every year there are different prank gifts, of course they usually revolve around bathroom humor. Fun pranks like these help us from getting too serious and reminds us to keep that kid part of us alive.

Susy, sixty years ago when I was a kid, fake poop and whoopee cushions were funny and kept showing up here and there. It’s amusing to me that humor still lives on today. I’m not sure why bathroom humor make us laugh but it does.

How funny! I love that your young niece enjoys the joke. My daughter would have cried. We had to cultivate her humor these past few years.

My mom’s family likes to prank a lot. When we used to get together back when I was a kid, there was a gift exchange among her siblings. My large-footed uncle wanted boat shoes (remember those?), and I remember helping my dad package one of the pair in a cardboard box that was as big as half a fridge. Of course, these were the days of packing peanuts, so we filled the box with those. I remember him opening the shoe box and he was so disappointed that he’d have to wait for my mom to take the shoe back to the store to find it’s mate. Then came the big box, and well….we all had a good laugh at his expense. That was the same year I thought my parents had gotten me E.T. for Christmas. Turns out it was a globe mounted on a stand my dad built, covered with a blanket.

When I was a kid my dad used to go to lots of auction sales and buy up stuff that he then sold at flea markets. In one box were these ugly little pink lambs with polka dots on them. For years we passed them around. They showed up in the toes of shoes, on my shelf in college, in my sisters sweater, under pillows, and in many more random places. They even ended up going on vacation with us a few times. Right now they have a place of honor in my parents curio cabinet. I am thinking that maybe they need to make the rounds again :)

We always have a gift exchange with friends, but we only give things around the house we don’t use anymore. A little vibrating pig massager has been regifted every year as a gag. He’s quite the celebrity, everyone trying to figure out which box he could be in, who had him last, almost wishing to get him so they can gag someone next year. These are the things you remember.

Support Chiot’s Run

We keep our blogs ad-free, not wanting to sell YOU (our readers and listeners) out. We believe in ‘Value for Value’, if you get some value from something we produce, consider giving some value in return through a monthly subscription.

Or make a one-time donation. Attach a note to any donation over $50 and we will read it on the podcast.

Also Find Me At

Reading & Watching

Resources

Shop through these links and I get a few cents each time. It's not much, but it allows me to buy a new cookbook or new gardening book every couple months. I appreciate your support!

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but just recently moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine.